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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27532135">Puppy Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robin_Fai/pseuds/Robin_Fai'>Robin_Fai</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Endeavour (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crack, Flirting, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Peter Jakes Returns to Oxford, The Author Regrets Nothing, yes you did read that ship tag right</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-08 06:48:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,865</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27532135</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robin_Fai/pseuds/Robin_Fai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Don't you just know that if Peter Jakes were to come back to Oxford around the time of series five he'd have fallen head over heels for the new boy George Fancy? No?! Well my imagination begs to differ.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Peter Jakes/George Fancy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Puppy Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/pendragonpants/gifts">pendragonpants</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Peter looked around the CID. It was beyond surreal to be back. When he’d left for America it had felt like he had begun a new chapter in his life and that, finally, it might be the happily ever after he’d always dreamed of. A year later, here he was back where he’d started. His time with Hope on the farm could almost have been a fever dream if it weren’t for the baby he now carried. </p><p>All the old team was there, but there were some new additions. A younger man with a stylish mop of dark hair was looking at him as though he were some kind of curiosity. He was rather cute with those soft lips framing his mouth hanging open in confusion, not to mention those captivating dark eyes. Peter swallowed back the sudden desire to march over to him and offer his hand. It was a compulsion of equal parts a wish to see how the already startled man would react, and excuse to feel if his skin was as soft as it looked.</p><p>He was distracted from his staring match by Morse and Strange hurrying over to greet him. Well, Strange was hurrying, Morse sort of drifted over in his wake and stood there with his hands in his pockets trying not to look awkward. Peter suppressed a smirk at that. Morse really wasn’t ever going to change; he would always be the slightly offbeat, hard to pin down, sort. Strange was a good fellow, but Morse was the one who had kept him on his toes and really made a difference to his life, so he was the one Peter was excited to be working with again. It was a miracle really nothing had ever happened between them. Morse really wasn’t his type, but he had this edge about him that could have made for a pretty electric kind of affair. Peter’s eyes drifted back to the dark haired young man that he had been eyeing up before. Yes, now he was definitely Peter’s type.</p><p>“So it’s true then, you’re back?” Strange said as he shook Peter's hand with enthusiasm.</p><p>“Yep, me and little Jacqueline here thought we’d give Oxford another go.” </p><p>Strange reached out and instantly had his finger grabbed. “She’s adorable.” </p><p>“How is Hope?” Morse asked.</p><p>Peter ducked his head to smile at his daughter and try to pry her fingers off Strange’s hand. “She’s still in America. She won’t be joining us.” </p><p>He pulled faces at Jacqueline to hide the emotion that always filled him when he thought of Hope. Things had begun falling apart almost from the instant they arrived at her father’s. Then when he’d begun training and working he had found he hated being a cowboy. When baby Jacqueline had arrived things had only gotten worse. Hope couldn’t bond with her. She hated being a mother almost as much as she hated living with Peter. He missed England, detective work, and the company of men. Being married to a woman, far from fixing him, had only confirmed how very definitely homosexual he was. </p><p>Something had to give. He had suggested a change of scene, a move back to Britain. He would have stayed for the sake of his child if she had said no, but much to his surprise Hope had countered with a suggestion he go back with Jacqueline, and without her. In the end they had parted amicably. They would get a divorce when they could, and Peter would bring Jacqueline to spend a couple of weeks with her mother each summer.</p><p>He looked up at his old colleagues (or were they friends? That line was so hard to gauge.) Strange’s brow was furrowed in an uncomfortable frown. He shot an accusing look at Morse, who was now staring at his feet as if willing the ground to open up beneath him. Peter had to hide a smile at that. It really wasn’t Morse’s fault for asking a perfectly normal question for once. </p><p>Peter broke the awkward silence that had fallen over them. “We’re separated, but it was friendly. Don’t worry; Jacqueline will still get to see her.” </p><p>“I’d never have put you down for the single dad game,” Strange said with an obviously forced smile, “but she’s a lovely little one. What will you do now?”</p><p>Peter shifted Jacqueline to try and stop her from wriggling uncomfortably in his arms. “I spoke with Bright on the phone earlier. They’re going to reinstate me what with the shortages and all.” He smirked at Morse’s surprised expression. </p><p>Behind Morse, the dark haired man he had noticed earlier was now loitering. He had a bit of a hopeful puppy dog look about him as he stared at Morse. Peter felt a pang of jealousy, though he wasn’t sure in which direction it was aimed. Probably both. Morse noticed his look and glanced back. When he caught sight of the other man his face twitched with its telltale sign of irritation, but the man didn’t seem to notice.</p><p>The man cleared his throat and spoke the instant he had Morse’s attention. “I was wondering about the Holder case-”</p><p>“I’m sure you were,” Morse muttered. “George, this is Peter Jakes. I’m sure you’ve heard of him. Peter, this is DC George Fancy.”</p><p>“Morse is looking after him,” Strange added. Though from the amused look on Strange’s face he suspected Morse was doing anything but. </p><p>Imagining Morse mentoring someone was faintly disturbing. Like asking a whale to teach a puppy how to swim. Peter shook his head to try and clear that bizarre image from his jet-lagged and parenting-fatigued brain. He needed to stop thinking of this George as a puppy. For all his cynicism Peter knew he had a weak spot for ‘cute’ and George was every bit that with a whole dash of naively sexy thrown in for good measure. Fuck it – <i>those eyes</i> - he had damn gorgeous eyes.</p><p>Morse shot Peter a suspicious look and he realised he was staring again. It took a couple of moments for his rational brain to catch up with his libido.</p><p>Peter cleared his throat and shifted a grumbling Jacqueline to offer his hand to George. The lad took it and Peter had to swallow hard; his skin really was as soft as it looked. How wonderful would it feel to have those hands on other parts of him. </p><p>George was staring at him, head tilted slightly in confusion, and Peter realised he had neither spoken nor let go of the other man’s hand.</p><p>“Ah, err, pleasure to meet you, George, was it?” </p><p>Peter was used to being smooth, confident, charming. He was fairly certain <i>this</i> first impression was going to be anything but. George gave him a lazy smile in return and squeezed his hand ever so slightly as they separated. </p><p>“Yes. Morse has told me so much about you,” George said, and then he gave Peter the smallest of winks. It was so simple and yet so suggestive that Peter was surprised he didn’t march forward to kiss those beautiful lips right there and then. He was fairly certain he was going to need a stiff drink to recover from this encounter. </p><p>“He has?” Peter somehow managed to say around the lump in his throat. He was quite touched actually to think of Morse talking to anyone about him.</p><p>“I have?!” Morse looked confused, and more than a little concerned.</p><p>“Yes, at the pub last week, after we wrapped up that burglary case.” George still looked as cute as anything but he suddenly bore himself with confidence that only a young man in possession of significant blackmail material can.</p><p>“Oh?” Morse looked paler than usual all of a sudden.</p><p>“Oh yes.” George matched Morse’s gaze in all its intensity and Peter wondered what it would be like to have that turned on him at a more opportune moment.</p><p>Morse paled even more, if that was even possible, every freckle on his face standing out in stark relief. Peter had to repress the urge to laugh. Jacqueline, ever attuned to her father’s moods, picked up on his amusement and giggled. George turned his attention to her, pulling faces that made her laugh even more, and instantly gained a friend for life. Strange just looked between them all, clearly lost as to the subtext of what had just happened, </p><p>“Right, well, I’d…” Morse coughed nervously and started backing away. “I’d better get back to… yes… anyway, good to see you again, Peter. I’ll see you in, err…?”</p><p>Peter came to his rescue despite the temptation to leave him floundering. “I start next week. Got to get settled in to the new place first. You’ll come for the house-warming, won’t you?”  </p><p>“Yes. Yes, of course,” Morse continued his no so subtle retreat, “let me know. Good to see you. Bye then.” </p><p>Morse all but ran from the room then. Peter had to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud. </p><p>Strange looked between George and Jacqueline, who were still engaged in their silly faces contest, and then over at Peter. “I’ll not ask, because I suspect I won’t want to know.” He glanced after Morse and sighed slightly. “Good to see you again, Matey. Look me up and we’ll go for a drink, eh? Or I’m always happy to help with lumping furniture and the like.” Strange nodded in lieu of a handshake, a fair choice given the twin obstacles of DC Fancy and the baby, and then left.</p><p>Peter was suddenly acutely aware of having been left alone with the rather beautiful object of his desire that he barely knew beyond a wink and a handshake. </p><p>“You’ve made a friend there,” he observed dryly, though to which of the pair he was talking was debatable. “Do you need a drink?” The second was definitely aimed at his daughter, so it was somewhat awkward when George replied:</p><p>“Hell yes! It’s been a <i>long</i> day.”</p><p>“It’s two p.m. And I was talking to Jacqueline.” Peter didn’t even try to hide his amused smirk. </p><p>George broke eye contact with the baby abruptly and flushed a rather magnificent shade of scarlet. Heavens but that just made him look even cuter. </p><p>“Jacqueline has her induction day at the nursery tomorrow, so I could meet you for lunch if you wanted? Get to know each other?” George was nodding his agreement even before Peter finished speaking, he smiled even wider. “Shall we say twelve thirty, at The Drake round the corner?” </p><p>George only nodded again, apparently rendered mute by his embarrassment. Peter couldn’t resist the urge to tease him even further and see if he could get that blush to reach those rather adorable ears.</p><p>“Better get permission though, eh. Wouldn’t want to land you in trouble with Morse.” Peter winked at George and was gratified to see his wish granted.  </p><p>He clapped George on the shoulder and made his way towards Bright’s office. His new life back in Oxford was looking distinctly more interesting than it had that morning. Even the effects of jet-lag it seemed could be improved by a cute smile and a promise of a date.</p>
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